JULIE HARRIS IN BENEFIT AT LAGUNA

Julie Harris will perform in a benefit production of the one-woman play “The Belle of Amherst” next April at the Laguna Moulton Playhouse, playhouse officials have announced.

Her performances, April 18 and 19, will be sponsored by the Laguna Moulton Playhouse Foundation, which is raising expansion and endowment monies for the playhouse.

Written by William Luce and based on the life and works of 19th-Century poet Emily Dickinson, “The Belle of Amherst” was first performed on Broadway in 1976 by Harris in a production staged by Charles Nelson Reilly.

She appeared later that year at the Huntington Hartford Theatre in Hollywood in a production directed by Reilly.

Harris’ Laguna Beach appearance is being arranged by the playhouse’s new support group, the Just Off-Broadway Auxiliary, which is headed by Ed Gazich.

The playhouse foundation is raising $2 million overall for facilities expansion and an operating endowment for the Laguna Moulton, which was founded in 1920 and is considered the oldest continuously operated community theater in California.

In the fall of 1985, the playhouse completed a $650,000 renovation that added 2,000 square feet to the playhouse, including a 68-seat balcony and new second-floor offices.

This was the first major expansion since the playhouse opened its permanent home--then a 16,750-square-foot structure that had 350 seats--in 1969 at the Laguna Canyon Road site next to Irvine Bowl.

Construction on a 5,000-square-foot annex for rehearsal and technical facilities, estimated to cost $750,000, is projected to start in 1987, said executive director Douglas Rowe.

Additional funds are being sought for an endowment to underwrite new production and educational programs, plus annual operating costs.

Rowe said a $20,000 grant was recently approved by the Laguna Beach City Council for the playhouse expansion.

The 1986-87 season will include “Sly Fox,” “Sleuth,” “The Music Man” and two other productions to be announced, Rowe said.